Anti-Gay Pastor Claims White House Appointed Him 'Special Envoy'

You may remember religious-right homophobe Ken Hutcherson from an incident in 2005 where Microsoft secretly withdrew its support from a pending gay rights bill in Washington state because of alleged pressure from Hutcherson, who threatened a religious-right boycott of the company should they have thrown their support behind it. Microsoft ended up cutting ties with the extremist.

Well, Hutcherson is back in the news. This time, according to the Seattle paper The Stranger, he's claiming that the director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives Jay Hein appointed him a "Special Envoy" and that a recent trip to Latvia, where he appeared with Scott Lively, an anti-gay religious right 'Holocaust revisionist' who claims that homosexuals were the cause of the Holocaust, was sanctioned by the White House.

Lively is co-author of The Pink Swastika- Homosexuality in the Nazi Party, a book which, according to uk.gay.com, claims that "homosexuality is primarily a predatory addiction striving to take the weak and unsuspecting down with it."

They report on the Lively-Hutcherson trip, which apparently was the centerpiece of a 4-day anti-gay crisis conference there. Said Lively: "I have studied homosexual movement now for 17 years and with all responsibility state that currently Latvia a zone of intense confrontation between Christians and homosexuals. This nation will be our main battlefield against this counter Christian culture. God gave Kenneth Hutcherson and me to see that Alexei [Ladyaev, pastor of Latvia’s New Generation Church] is the very man God placed to direct this battle, and church should support him in all respects. We are going to help you consistently and effectively to fight those who violate Christ’s rights and target his ministers for their insults."

The Stranger reports that Hutcherson was also there to complain to the U.S. Embassy "about its alleged monetary support for gay rights groups."

After calls to the White House by The Stranger, a spokeswoman denied any connection with Hutcherson. However, Hutcherson claims the White House is lying and tells the paper to find Hein, who met with him at the White House and in Seattle. Hutcherson claims there is a video of Hein, Hutcherson, and Ladyaev on the White House lawn talking to a Latvian news reporter.

Said Hutcherson: "I’m gonna prove that I had those meetings, I’m gonna prove that I got that title behind me, and I’m gonna show you the video that says I was coming to Latvia and the purpose why."

What does this all mean? Well, if Hutcherson is lying it could possibly be a federal crime, and if the White House gave its seal of approval to an anti-gay homophobe to travel the world with a Holocaust revisionist - well, we'll see.

Last year, in July, violence broke out in the notoriously homophobic nation after a gay pride parade was banned by the government. A gay rights rally did take place and participants were pelted with eggs, excrement, and rotten fruit by Christian fundamentalists, neo-Nazis, and ultra-nationalists as they entered and exited the meeting at the Reval hotel.

In 2005, a participant in the pride parade, which was banned by the government, but allowed to proceed by a court at the last minute, described a similar scene: "There were so many attacks, people were throwing eggs, people were using gaz [sic], they were trying to block the march. It was extremely, extremely homophobic. I don’t think anybody in Europe saw anything like that."

Comments

Sounds to me like the White House connection is a convenient way to legitimize his psychotic behaviour (and associations) in his home country. I highly doubt his White House claim and this is coming from someone who is more than willing to demonize GW.

"As many as 6,000 of the approximately 10,000 “pink triangles” died in the work camps, but few, if any, were gassed in the death camps. Some of those who died met their deaths at the hands of homosexual Kapos (“trustees”) and guards of the SS. At first glance it is difficult to understand why the homosexual leaders of the Nazis would persecute other homosexuals on the basis of their sexual behavior. We alluded, in the matter of the Sex Research Institute, to the fact that the homosexual movement in Germany was divided into two diametrically opposed camps which some have called the “Fems” and the “Butches.” These terms are common among homosexuals today, as is the disdain “Butches” feel for “Fems.”

"The most hostile to “Femmes” are precisely those homosexuals who deem themselves the most “masculine.” In The Homosexual Matrix, C.A. Tripp writes that “[f]ar to the other extreme, there are a number of utterly masculine, sometimes supermasculine homosexuals....They are obses- sed with everything male and eschew anything weak or effeminate....Unquestionably they represent the epitome of what can happen when an eroticized maleness gains the full backing of a value system that supports it” (Tripp:92). Cory and LeRoy, in their detailed discussion of homosexual culture, describe the scene in a typical American “leather bar”.

"Hitler was apparently not involved with homosexuality solely to survive financially. Even in his pre-Nazi years, most of Hitler’s reputed homosexual encounters were consensual meetings in which no money changed hands. Machtan suggests that each of Hitler’s longer-term relationships in his youth -- with Reinhold Hanisch, August Kubizek, Rudolf Hausler and Ernst Hanfstaengl -- were homosexual “love affairs.”

Maybe what these people need to be told is that homosexuality is so natural it is widespread and just part of beign a guy for many people.

Good People and Bad People.

Regardless of sexuality Nazism was caused by people who wanted power and influence over others.... at any cost.

Just like these "Christianists".

Posted by: rjp3 | Mar 20, 2007 10:32:20 AM

Miss Thang looks fa-BU-lous in her white, faux fur angel wings!

She really should come out of the closet already and drop all this hatin.

Until then, if this story turns out to be true, we should make sure that this 300+ lb. albatros gets hung firmly around the neck of the current administration.

This, more than any of its countless other anti-gay statements or policies, shows the reach and the radical extent of their homophobia.

It's so nice to see the mental health issue that Hutcheson obviously suffers from brought out in a way that (a) makes anyone who supports him or his outlandisch views look foolish and (b) makes it more likely he will get actual medical treatment for his disorder (bipolar disorder?) With psychotherapy and the right drug regimen, he could lead a much more fulfilling life free of the paranoia that clearly grips him now.

While I have compassion for the mentally ill, I'm also enjoying the crash and burn of his political machine, to the extent he even really has one, in Washington State--it will be deliciously impossible for any mainstream person to stand with him on stage or otherwise. And it underscores how the points of view he espouses are probably sooner a symptom of a mental health issue than any fervent religious conviction.

Posted by: ebsur | Mar 20, 2007 10:48:18 AM

OF COURSE THE WHITE HOUSE CONNECTION IS TRUE! These are the same people who claimed they were not sure if Bush ever even met Ken Lay only to find out that Bush knew him so well he gave Lay a nickname, the same people who claimed they had no contact with Haggard only to find out they talked to Haggard on a semi-weekly basis, the same people who pushed mushroom clouds and WMDs and on and on and on.

This man believes he was put in the White House by Jesus H. Christ himself because you know, the creator of the entire world searched all of the land and Baby Bush was the best he came up with.

I worked on a campaign in Texas when dubya was governor and can tell you he is crooked as they come.

"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross” Sinclair Lewis

Are any of OUR tax dollars funneled to this bigot under the Faith based initiatives program?

Posted by: brian | Mar 20, 2007 11:05:56 AM

The ugly preacher and the kooky right-wing activist are obviously insane fools...but the stuff about Nazi butch homos persecuting fems is fascinating. I always knew there was danger as you butch gay boys came to power in the 1980's. I'm contacting the Lady Bunny and Rupaul to create a resistance movement against you brutish "bottoms". Long live LA resistance!

Posted by: Derrick from Philly | Mar 20, 2007 11:17:47 AM

LATVIA!!!???

The xtianistas think Latvia is supposed to be the main battlefield against us gays.

LOL
LOL
LOL

Uhm, isn't Latvia the smallest country in the world? Isn't it that nation that is supposedly only like a few acres in size.

If not, I doubt it is that much bigger or overflowing with modern telecomunications tech, transportation tech, money, and people which are all necessary for any kind of world wide warfare

Do they even have electricity in Latvia yet?

LOL

I just remembered.....isn't Latvia the country Dr Doom in the Fantastic 4 comic book rules??

LOL

Sounds like these guys have been reading too many comic books

coo coo crazy

Posted by: jimmyboyo | Mar 20, 2007 11:30:52 AM

Ok, I looked it up

24,937 sq mi ...larger than I thought but still pretty small to stage a battlefront in a world wide, stretching through all of history, and totaly abundant in nature amongst all animal species war against us gays

Also Latveria was the dr doom nation dredged up from my childhood memory

latvia...Latveria Ok Marvel comics added er in the middle of it.

LOL

Posted by: jimmyboyo | Mar 20, 2007 11:36:51 AM

I doubt the administration would go anywhere near a holocaust denier. The holocaust attracts nutjobs like moths to a flame.

Posted by: anon | Mar 20, 2007 11:42:48 AM

Is there any greater evil in this world than religion? I think not.

While Hutchinson's ancestors were LITERALLY slaving away in cotton fields, men just like him were using the "Word of God" to keep blacks from enjoying even the most basic rights. Black slaves were told that God sanctioned slavery and that they should submit to their masters because slavery was a "God-ordained" institution. And sadly, they found much in their Bible to back up this position.

Why is it that we can always count on "Christians" to be on the wrong side of every movement of social progress? Blacks and abolitionists fought against slavery, but "Christians" fought back. Women fought for the right to vote, but "Christians" fought back. Blacks fought for full equality in society and an end to Jim Crowe laws, but "Christians" fought back. Now we gays and lesbians are fighting for our rights - and in many cases for our very lives - and still the "Christians" fight back.

How I wish that Jesus himself were here to witness what his followers have wrought. He would weep from the sight of his message of love and peace being twisted and used like a cudgel by those who claim to be his most devout disciples to beat up on others. I think that the retribution that would follow would make what Jesus did to the moneychangers in the temple look like a slap on the wrist.

This is war, my friends. We must fight these people every step of the way in order to protect our lives, our families and our property. Our enemy has vowed to crush us and to establish their rule over society, one that no doubt is solidly based on a Dominionist theocracy in which NO ONE will enjoy freedom as we know it today. Let no stone go unturned as we expose these people for what they are. We simply must prevail, or we will die.

Posted by: Jonathon | Mar 20, 2007 11:43:51 AM

You guys are giving these guys too much credit.

latvia??? and those Mr spock eyebrows on the brother

Obviously these guys aren't playing with a full deck.

Don't fear them, ridicule them. They are coo coo crazy

Posted by: jimmyboyo | Mar 20, 2007 12:29:32 PM

Jimmy Yo Yo, once again that toy box you have in place of brains is bouncing all over the place. DUMP TINA!

If there is a White House connection, of course, it should be used against them to our fullest advantage. But, as I've written before, the billion dollar antigay industry doesn't need government help to spread their violence promoting hate. [Nor did Bush invent them. In fact, the reverse could be said to be true.]

One single example, out of MANY, is the most successful and rabidly antigay empire of all: Focus on the Family, and its psychotic, lying head snake James Dobson. According to People for the American Way [started by producer Norman Lear], "Dr. Dobson is heard daily on more than 3,400 radio facilities in North America, in 15 languages, on approximately 6,300 facilities in 164 countries. Dobson’s estimated listening audience is over 220 million people every day, including a program translation carried on all state-owned radio stations in the Republic of China. In the United States, Dobson appears on 80 television stations daily."

In an interview, one of his henchman bragged about how huge a "ministry" they have in Russia where religious-based violence against gays exceeds that in Latvia.

One of the reasons that I so hate the Human Rights Champagne Fund is that they have essentially fiddled for a quarter century while these groups increasingly tried to incinerate our rights in the US, and are spreading it internationally.

Posted by: Leland | Mar 20, 2007 12:46:23 PM

This is serious. Whenever people like them speak it gives others validation for their hatred toward gay people.

Fighting back just as hard is the only way to win.

Posted by: Jack! | Mar 20, 2007 12:57:12 PM

"You guys are giving these guys too much credit."

Dudes ARE cleary nucking futs though it is probably a good idea to keep an eye on and/or out for (considering the bars, websites, rest stops et cetera tormented souls like his tend to secretly yet feverishly frequent) Hutchinson.

It takes some dedication to just find Latvia on a map let alone travel all the way there for a "conference" so there is no telling what he will do next in the name of God/hate. And Jesus wept...

Posted by: Giovanni | Mar 20, 2007 12:58:13 PM

from one black/african american to another....NEGRO PLEASE!!!!

Posted by: candi | Mar 20, 2007 1:45:37 PM

Scott Lively used to be a spokesman for the Oregon Citizens Alliance - a group which tried (and failed) to pass Ballot Measure 9 in 1992 which would have mandated the firing of all gay teachers, attorneys, doctors etc.. and written discrimination into the Oregon constitution. During the campaign he assaulted a reporter for Just Out, a gay newspaper in Portland, and was ordered to pay a civil judgment to the reporter he assaulted, which he failed to do. All of this is a matter of public record and should be publicized. He has a long record and history in Oregon.

I am sickened and appalled by this man and all Christian bgroups that promote voilence and hatred. how is that they missed all the parts in teh bible that say to love thy neighbor and do no harm to your fellow man? I mean if my religeous brianwashing severs me right jesus must have said those things all over the new testimate. People like him are very fearfull people. and unfortunatlly fear is a great motivator so we should keep an eye and this crazy preacher.

I never said ignore these guys, I never said to not be aware of them, etc

I said there is no reason to fear them. There is no power in fear. Be afraid and be a looser.

But you leland sure know how to cary a personal grudge don't you. I called you a fool a week or so ago and you still have to attack. Grrrrr grrr LOL You are almost as much a joke as these guys. LOL A joke and a has been who would rather quake in fear then live life.

When CONSERVATIVE republican Senator Warner comes out on the side of gays and says we are not immoral, then you can be assured that a new wind is blowing. That we have gained ground. That the xtianistas are loosing.

It is not time to be afraid. It is time to be proud. To be strong. To embrace our power as a community. To know that we can nevre be defeated by guys such as the guys in this post. They are fighting a loosing battle. History, logic, and nature are all on our side. What is there to be afraid of.

many of our own would rather you be afraid because your fear gives them power. "A people afraid are more easily controlled"

Be not afraid. Laugh, live, and know you are powerful.

Well, except for leland who likes to live under a slimy rock thinking up obsessive thoughts about reichen.